Dylan Horrocks

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1. I live in Auckland, New Zealand with a wife, two sons, a dog and a cat.

2. I am the author of the graphic novel Hicksville and the comics series Pickle and Atlas.

3. I’ve written scripts for DC Comics, including Hunter: the Age of Magic and Batgirl.

4. I’ve also written essays and articles about comics (among other things), some of which can be read here.

5. And in 1995-1997 I drew a weekly political comic strip for the NZ Listener, called Milo’s Week.

6. One of those strips was subsequently reprinted in at least two economics books.

7. Another of my cartoons so enraged a former minister of finance that she cancelled a feature interview with the Listener. A fact of which I am inordinately proud.

8. I was born in 1966 and was thrilled to find many grey hairs in a recent (shortlived experimental) beard.

9. I was conceived in Berkeley, California and was nearly born at sea.

10. My first published comic strip appeared in a New Zealand children’s magazine called Jabberwocky when I was 13 or 14.

11. My first words were “Donald Duck”.

12. I’ve been playing role-playing games since 1980, and am currently running a vaguely steampunk game entitled ‘The Golden Rose’ for a group of friends, one of whom was also at that very first game nearly 30 years ago.

13. I’m using True20 for that game, in case you’re wondering (well, to the extent that I use a system at all).

14. I recently had a cartoon on the front page of The Pirate Bay, much to my surprise.

15. I read vast piles of non-fiction, but am allergic to most novels. It’s not that I don’t like them, exactly, it’s just that I find them very hard to read - at least for the last ten years or so.

16. I suffer from an occasionally recurring fear of comics, and was recently interviewed for a magazine article about phobias (by an alektorophobic journalist).

17. Consequently, I adore pictures of comics being destroyed, like this one and this one.

18. I’ve had recurring nightmares about tsunamis since I was a little boy. But shortly before the Boxing Day Tsunami, I decided to switch it from a phobia to an obsession and began collecting pictures, articles and documentaries about giant waves. Now I enjoys surfing movies, swimming at West Coast beaches and fantasising about natural disasters. I’ve even watched The Day After Tomorrow several times, just for the scene where New York gets totalled by a massive storm surge.

19. I used to intensely dislike dogs (to the extent of daydreaming about their extinction) until my wife and kids persuaded me to get a golden retriever puppy in 2007. Now I adore dogs of all kinds, and often cross the road to pat them.

20. I want to drive an electric car.

21. I think one of the best things about getting older is realising you don’t have to have an opinion about everything.

22. I’m still embarrassed at how opinionated I can be.

23. I love guacamole and would happily eat it every day. My wife’s guacamole is the best I’ve ever tasted.

24. I’m rather partial to silly Facebook memes. But my favourite meme ever has to be this one.

25. I have a far more detailed, but now hopelessly out of date old website, which is soon to redesigned.